Horizontal washer apparatus

Abstract

Apparatus for the continuous wet treatment of moving textile webs, commonly called a horizontal washer. Two vertical columns of horizontal rollers are provided horizontally spaced from each other with a textile web entry at a lower portion of one side of a chamber containing the rollers, and an exit of the web at the opposite side of the chamber. A treatment liquid introducing structure is provided at the top of the chamber, and in order to provide additional treatment capacity (especially for heavy, tight fabrics) a treating liquid introducing structure is provided at an intermediate portion of the chamber vertically between the web entry and the top liquid introducing struture. The intermediate liquid introducing structure comprises a liquid seal which provides the web exit, troughs extending from either side of the liquid seal to provide drain off into the seal and overflow from the seal onto a portion of the moving web. A drain tank is disposed on the bottom of the chamber, taking up only about one-half of the area of the chamber bottom, on the exit side of the chamber. The web entrance is provided by a shallow liquid seal adjacent the drain tank. A series of chambers preferably is provided utilizing either a recirculation system or a counterflow system, and a heat exchanger can be provided to preheat fresh treating liquid with spent treating liquid.